St Mary's Church, Shotley

The church sits at the end of a long lane in Shotley, overlooking the confluence of the Rivers Orwell and Stour - proper exposed bit of Suffolk coast, this. St Mary's has been standing guard over the peninsula since medieval times, and stepping inside you get that immediate sense of age: uneven floors, a tower that leans slightly, windows that rattle when the wind picks up off the water.

It's the sort of place that appeals to history types and anyone doing the coastal walk round here. The graveyard is worth a wander on its own - lots of sailors buried there, which tells you everything about Shotley's maritime past. The church itself is small and unselfconscious, no grand monuments or razzmatazz, just honest stonework and the kind of quiet you don't find in villages closer to Harwich.

Admission is typically free, though it's worth checking locally as opening hours can be unpredictable for smaller parishes. Allow a good thirty minutes if you're poking around the churchyard too. The real value is in combining it with a coastal walk - the Shotley peninsula itself is accessible and less crowded than Felixstowe Beach just across the water.

If you're based at one of the nearby holiday parks - Peewit Caravans is your best bet quality-wise - this makes a decent morning detour. Not a day's entertainment on its own, but genuinely rewarding if you're interested in how ordinary people lived and worshipped in medieval Suffolk. The views across the river confluence are cracking too.